1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wireless LAN device performing wireless communication in a wireless network.
2. Description of the Background Art
A wireless Local Area Network (LAN) is becoming popular in recent years. The wireless LAN enables communication only within a range where radio waves of wireless LAN devices are reachable. Thus, for communication in an area wider than a range where radio waves of a wireless LAN device are reachable, a relaying technique is being developed, in which the communicable area is broadened by arranging a plurality of wireless relay devices. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. JP2005-523641 discloses a technique to enable a wireless terminal (a wireless LAN device that start communication with another terminal such as a server) to access an outer network via a wireless relay device and a gateway connected to an outer network.
However, which wireless relay devices are to be connected is manually determined by the user, which bothers the user. If several wireless relay devices having the same wireless setting are present, the level of the Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) may be used to automatically determine which one of the wireless relay devices is to be connected. In this case, however, it sometimes occurs that an optimized relay path composed of the minimum number of relay points cannot be determined.
In consideration of one or more of the above-described problems, according to an aspect of the present invention, an efficient relay path composed of wireless relay devices for access to an outer network via a wireless LAN is automatically established.